Pupils in fee-paying schools scored four times as many A* grades at GCSE this summer than the average for teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, according to figures from the Independent Schools Council (ISC) released yesterday.

It said 26.8% of exams taken by candidates at its member schools received top marks and that nearly six in 10 were awarded an A* or A in at least one exam. This compared with 6.4% and two in 10 for all entries nationally.

The top school was Harrow, where boys scored on average more than 11 A*s this year.

Exam boards last week angered the schools by suggesting that proportions of pupils scoring As and A* in state schools in recent years was rising while those in fee-paying schools, albeit far higher, had levelled off or fallen.

The ISC says the proportion of A* grades had risen from 26.5% last year , while the national figure had risen to 6.4% from 6.3%. Nineteen in 20 exams at its schools had been awarded A* to C grades, while nationally the figure was 63.3%. The ISC general secretary, Jonathan Shephard, said: "The reality is our schools do a good job."

The council has repeatedly complained that independent schools are penalised because many teach international GCSEs, which are not officially recognised by the government and so do not appear in league tables.

"Plainly it is important to include IGCSE results in the overall calculations," said Mr Shephard. "This will be done, we have no doubt, in the near future. Meanwhile, the results put out by the exam boards showed only part of the picture."